Chandigarh (IANS): Reliance Communications Monday announced the launch of its GSM mobile services in Punjab, becoming the first telecom operator in the circle to have both GSM and CDMA services for mobile users.

"The service will cover 460 towns, 11,741 villages and a number of national, state and other highways, tourist and religious places throughout the state," Reliance regional hub head Arvind Kumar told reporters at the launch.

The Punjab circle GSM market is dominated by telecom majors Airtel and Idea (till recently Spice) and the entry of Reliance is likely to make the competition even more keen.

Offering a Reliance GSM prepaid SIM card for a one-time charge of just Rs.25, Reliance officials said the inaugural offer to subscribers would provide 100 percent savings to the sub-Rs.300 users.

"The difference we are offering over earlier service providers is the superior quality of service which customers will acknowledge through the customer experience programme," Kumar said.

The plan offers talk time worth Rs.900 on local calls and SMS to any network. Each subscriber will be given free talk time worth Rs.10 everyday for 90 days, Kumar said.

Reliance claimed that it had set up adequate number of towers across Punjab to provide high quality, congestion-free and zero call drop GSM services.